Dubai Customs accountant ‘forged receipts and pocketed Dh2m’

DUBAI // An accountant employed by Dubai Customs allegedly altered official receipts by reducing the amount and pocketing the difference, which came to more than Dh2 million.

The Dubai Criminal Court was told that between 2009 and 2013, the 45-year-old Egyptian, who was responsible for collecting revenues for Dubai Customs from Dubai Dry Docks, forged 266 electronic receipts by reducing the amounts then saved them in the system.

Records show that the defendant was working with the Dubai customs but had been stationed in the docks since 1995.

The incident came to light when an assistant accountant was assigned to prepare a financial report of the 2013 and 2014 revenues.

“When I started working on the report I noticed some contradicting figures therefore I double checked the original receipts not the electronic ones and found that the amounts have been changed,” testified the 31-year-old Egyptian.

A 33-year-old Palestinian auditor testified that he was part of an auditing team set up to revise all of the defendant’s work.

“All the altered receipts were done using the defendant’s username and password on the system,” testified the Palestinian, adding that the work of four of the defendant’s colleagues were also double checked and found accurate.

Prosecutors said the defendant confessed during interrogations to charges of forgery, use of forged documents and embezzlement, however, he denied the charges in court on Tuesday morning.

The next hearing will be on May 3.